Fooled once, fooled twice, fooled three times
by Haely Potter
Summary: A blue envelope waits Rose at home after Krop Tor with a great big silver zero on it. Inside - an invitation to witness the Doctor's death. Rose/Doctor, mild River bashing
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, this is my second Doctor Who story and slightly more ambitious than my first one.

I've read all the stories in which the Doctor sends Rose an envelope to Pete's World, and I have to say, I've always wondered why no one's written about the Doctor sending the invitation to a younger Rose. I didn't mean to write this, or, when I started writing this, it was meant to span just The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon but then I got the idea of how to solve the problem with Rose going to Pete's World. So more plot was born. And I just couldn't stop writing. And this spans the whole season 6, while cutting out most episodes.

The second part should be up as soon as I get it typed but I dare not give a time frame for it. Anything from a few days to a few weeks, really.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The blue envelope addressed to Rose came two days before a scheduled trip home. Jackie put the envelope to a visible place so that she'd remember to give it to her daughter in two days time and then forgot about it until she heard the TARDIS' engines. When Rose and the Doctor (in his pinstripe suit and great hair) came in Jackie chatted with them for a bit before remembering the envelope.

"Oh! You got mail a few days back," she told Rose and got up from the table to retrieve the queer blue envelope. "There's no return address and it has all kinds of stamps and it's blue! Who would send anything in a blue envelope? D'you think it's alien?"

Rose took the offered letter and flipped it around before holding it out for the Doctor to sonic it to make sure it wasn't anything dangerous. But it seemed to be just a letter. Her name and address were written on a silver marker and on the flip side there was a great big zero, also in silver. Curiously, she opened the envelope and took out a card.

**22/04/2011  
16:45 MDT  
37" 0'38"N 110" 14'34"W**

"It's a date, a time and some coordinates," she said and looked at the Doctor.

"There's more in there," the Doctor said and nodded to the envelope as Rose handed him the card. His mind went on a whirlwind of thoughts and theories and speculations when he saw the card himself. He resisted the urge to lick it.

Rose took out then the letter and unfolded it.

_My Dearest Rose,_

_This is the New New New Doctor, one that no longer has you with him, hasn't had for centuries. I am at the end of my rope, and my final death is close and I know I really shouldn't send this but I cannot imagine dying without seeing you for one last time. Much has happened since I last saw you and much will happen to you before you see the last of me and I can't tell you any of it in fear of a paradox (we don't want a repeat of the reapers, after all). If you do come to the enclosed time and coordinates, you will see me die hundreds of years in the future of your Doctor which means he cannot step out of the TARDIS. The Sexy blue box will keep him contained if you come. You will also meet the Ponds, Amy and Rory, they're married. You turned me domestic, I tell you. And Doctor River Song who, for some reason, thinks she's my wife. I think she and Jack would get on rather well, they both love flirting and guns._

_Please come,  
Forever your Doctor  
The Man who is Rude and not Ginger  
The Stuff of Legend_

_PS: I'll be the one who apparently looks like a twelve-year-old in tweed and bow-tie. Bow-ties are cool._

Rose clutched the letter with shaking hands and tears cascading down her cheeks. She looked up to see her mother and the Doctor looking at her with worry. "Doctor, it's from a future you. We are going to those coordinates right now so that I can slap some sense into him. You can't come outside the TARDIS, we don't want a paradox on our hands, but I'll sort it out, okay?" she told him firmly and started to drag him to the TARDIS, the letter still in her hand.

"Do you have to go right now, sweet'eart?" Jackie called after them. "What do you mean, sort it out? Is he doin' somethin' stupid? Smack 'im for me too, won't you, he's like the son-in-law I never wanted! And he's likely to deserve it for somethin' he's done!"

Rose dragged the Doctor down the stairs and to the street and to the TARDIS but her thoughts were mostly on the letter. It said the Doctor would hundreds of years after she'd… what? Left? Died? It didn't sound like he'd left her behind like he'd done with Jack and Sarah Jane.

When the door closed behind them Rose went to the console. "Doctor, the coordinates, please," she pleaded and reluctantly her pinstriped Doctor set the coordinates.

"Lake Silencio, Utah, 2011, April 22nd, 16:45," he said, tasting the timeline there. "Remember the last time we were in Utah? Van Statten's still out there right now, probably torturing that Dalek."

"Yeah, I suppose," Rose said distractedly. Normally she would have been all about preventing torture, but she now knew more about established events and, well, it was a Dalek.

"I guess you can't tell me what was in that letter?" the Doctor asked as he danced around the console, flying the TARDIS.

"No, you… he… you mentioned paradoxes and reapers and I don't want anything to do with those," answered Rose as the TARDIS shuddered and landed. "That was one of your better landings, now go tinker or something while I'll deal with the future you," she said and ran to the door which she yanked open.

The scenery was nice enough, a lake and mountains in the distance but there was no one there yet. She poked her head back inside the TARDIS. "What time is it?"

"16:30," answered the Doctor. "I thought it'd be better to be a little early."

"So I can change my clothes if I'm really quick about it," she said as she ran to her room. Her hoodie and jeans really weren't something she wanted to wear if this really was the last time the Doctor would see her. She wanted to look nice for him.

Ten minutes later she was back in the console room dressed in a white tee and on top of it a light pink button-up that she had left open, tan shorts, white tights and rose colored converse. She had a bum bag with some money, miniature spyglass, her passport and the envelope with the card and letter resting on her waist. Her hair she'd pulled in a messy ponytail, leaving some strands free. She twirled for her Doctor. "What do you think? Do you care to see me dressed like this?"

Doctor looked up from his tinkering and grinned. "You look lovely as always."

Rose kissed his cheek and ran back outside just as a car pulled in. It stopped and from the driver's seat came out a man in tweed who Rose assumed was the Doctor, like he'd warned her in his letter. From the front seat came a woman in mid-thirties with light brown ringlets for hair, dressed mostly in denim, and she had a gun on her hip. Rose guessed she was Doctor River Song. From the back seat came a young couple, the woman had long ginger hair and the man had a slightly larger-than-average nose. Rose supposed they were Amy and Rory Pond.

"Doctor!" she shouted and sprinted to the car and threw her arms around the tweed jacket man. He was a little shorter than her pinstriped version of him but still he could lift her up and twirl her around.

"Rose Tyler! You came!" he laughed gleefully.

"Of course I came you daft alien!" she laughed as he set her down. Then she slapped him, a deathly serious look on her face. "You're not doing whatever it is that you're planning on doing," she told him and slapped him again. "That second one was from mum, you're the son-in-law she never wanted but is still happy to have. I mean, I know we're not like that, but that's what she said."

Doctor was holding his now smarting cheek. "You, Rose Tyler, slap like your mother. Is it hereditary?" he whined, ignoring the last part of her comment.

"I wouldn't know, we don't have kids, now do we?" she retorted with her tongue-between-teeth smile, the one he's missed so. "So, do you always sign your letters "Forever Rose Tyler's Doctor" or is it just me?"

The Doctor cupped Rose's face between his hands. "Actually that letter I sent you was the first letter I've written since meeting you so I don't rightly know."

"You've gone centuries without writing letters? You daft alien you, you should at least write to Jack sometimes, he's rebuilding the Earth, remember?" she said, her hands covering his for a second before lowering them, holding both his hands in between them.

"Actually he's in present day Cardiff, but you can't tell me that, it has to be a surprise," the Doctor shrugged. "He had his vortex manipulator. If I timed the letter right, you've just come from Krop Tor, right?"

"Yes, is that when you turned domestic?" she asked with an arched eyebrow, nodding to the Ponds, and took a step back, holding only his right hand, noticing how they still fit, even after regeneration.

"That's when it started," nodded the Doctor. "With you I wouldn't have died of boredom on the slow path."

"Doctor, who's she?" the redhead asked with heavy Scottish accent.

"Ah! Pond, this is Rose Tyler, I haven't seen her for centuries but she's traveling with a younger me right now. Rose, this is Amelia Pond, the girl who waited."

"Let me, guess you were late," deadpanned Rose.

The Doctor blushed and tugged on his ear in embarrassment and it reminded Rose of his previous regeneration that was waiting for her in the TARDIS right now. "TARDIS was recalibrating and I was twelve years late and then I had to make a quick hop to the Moon and I was another two years late."

Rose laughed. "At least your driving doesn't get any better. But temporal numbers five and twelve don't seem to like you much, Doctor."

"Oi! I resent that remark!"

"Let's count, shall we? Cardiff 1869. A year late home. A month late to London 1941. Scotland 1879. That abandoned spaceship in 5123. That parallel world. London 1953. Krop Tor. Not to mention, we still haven't been to Barcelona, not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona, with dogs with no noses. By the way, I'm keeping one of them, I don't care what you say," Rose listed. "As for the numbers: twelve hours equals twelve months, five-and-a-half hours and lastly five minutes to twelve years."

The Doctor pouted. "But I got you nearly everywhere else. I got you to Platform One, Woman Wept, Satellite 5, Christmas 2006, New Earth, ancient Rome, home most recently, 2012 Olympics, no, wait, you haven't done that yet, forget I said anything," he listed back. "And you really can't be mad about that five-and-a-half hours, it was ages ago in the future."

"Oh, don't pout you big baby," Rose slightly smacked his arm. "You know I wouldn't have changed it for anything, even Krop Tor. But I get to go to 2012 Olympics, eh? Tell me, do we end up running from aliens again? Like in the first anti-gravity Olympics?"

"Not exactly," grinned the Doctor. "And I don't have to partake in the actual games."

Rose shrugged. "That's good enough for me. But tell me, were you alone when you regenerated?" she asked, full of worry for the alien in front of her.

"Well, I had the time to say goodbye to everyone, in fact, you were the last one, New Years day, 2005, the man who'd had too much to drink?" the Doctor nudged Rose's shoulder. "And then I got to the TARDIS, went to flight, regenerated and crashed in Amelia's garden shed."

"So I won't be with you long enough for you to regenerate," Rose said sadly.

"You know, regenerations are supposed to last hundreds of years."

"You're much too careless, the one with me is the tenth and he's barely 1100."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "How do you know? I told you I was 900!"

"Bad Wolf," Rose shrugged again. "It took a while but my memories came back. I saw your life up to that point and I can remember it, like a book I liked. Don't worry, it's not too much, it's not like I know everything you know, like all the five thousand species that resemble raxacoricofallapatorians."

The Doctor beamed. "You, Rose Tyler, are wonderfully impossible."

"Hush now and let me take stock," Rose shushed him, letting go of his hand and started to circulate him slowly, eyes roaming on his new body. "Two legs, two arms, hands and ten fingers. Do you still have a slight weakness of… what was it?"

"Dorsal tubercle," grinned the Doctor. "And no."

"So your wrists are working but you've lost you 'fightin' hand'," Rose imitated his southern accent from the previous (to her) Christmas. "Anyway, slightly shorter this time around, but with more meat on your bones, that's good, I don't have to worry about bruises after hugging you. Hair… longish." She paused and reached a hand to touch it speculatively. "As soft as last time around when you're not killing it with gel. Good color, but still not ginger, eh? Your eyebrows though… if mum saw you, she'd be getting her dyes out and sitting you down so that she'd dye your eyebrows back. Eyes… very pretty. Nose… you've had larger, but I loved that beak anyway. It is quite wide though… You're stubborn this time around aren't you?"

"Yeah?" answered the Doctor, confused with what that had anything to do with how he looked.

"It's the jaw, it's got a stubborn tilt to it. But you're also a planner this time around, your forehead's largest that I've seen in a while," Rose grinned and tapped it lightly with her forefinger.

"No comment about the chin?" he asked, pouting slightly. Everyone else seemed to find it his most defining feature this time around…

"Nah, you probably get it all the time and I'm Rose Tyler, I don't do what others do," she answered pertly, grinning, and flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. "And I have a feeling someone is going to call you chin boy someday, just like my Doctor is going to get called pretty boy one day. I just hope I'm there to see his face."

"Doctor, we're still a little lost," Rory cut in as the Doctor opened his mouth to argue something with a pout. "Who is she, exactly? Because she looks very much like the statues of Fortuna…"

"Rose, this is Rory the Roman, also known as the Last Centurion," the Doctor said cheerfully, pointing at Rory proudly, knowing what was going to come next.

"Oh, I love that legend!" Rose said enthusiastically. "It was the one piece of literature I didn't hate that we had to read at school. Is Pandorica really real?"

"Not in my timeline anymore but in yours, yes. And Rory, Rose is the one I love above and beyond the Universe but talking about her hurts more than anything, which is why I haven't told you about her before." He paused. "And I spent months perfecting the statue of Fortuna in her model after she'd accidentally been turned to stone been named the statue of Fortuna, after we found a statue of Fortuna resembling Rose in modern day London. But then, turning her into a goddess wasn't that hard. She's worshiped on thirty different planets, you know," the Doctor explained. "Quarter past five she's going to go back to the younger me while you four, you four will be going on a whole new adventure."

Rose noticed how he left himself out of the count.

"Now, I've a picnic basket in the trunk of my car, along with a couple of blankets, go set it up, I need a word with Rose, alone," the Doctor said and shooed everyone else away. He led Rose by hand out of hearing rage. Then he leaned closer to whisper in hear ear. "Rose, I'm not going to die but it will look like I will, it has to, it's a fixed point in time. So please, just, do as I say, please. I know it'll be hard, but I've got real monsters after me, they want me dead, no new new new new Doctor. This is the beginning of a circular paradox and this is a fixed point. You four will be joining a younger me for an adventure and I will lay low for a while, hopefully not dying, but you know me, trouble magnet even without my miss jeopardy friendly," he joked, trying to lighten the mood but he became serious again. He still held her hand. "I didn't have the plan I now do when I sent the letters, I wouldn't have invited you otherwise, because, forcing you to see it, even for a Doctor you don't know…"

Rose was blinking rapidly to keep in her tears, smiling sedately. "But you're all my Doctors, not just the one with big ears, northern accent and leather jacket, nor the one with great hair, pinstripes and converse. You with your floppy hair and bow-tie and tweed are my Doctor too. I don't care how many times you regenerate, you're still mine, because inside you're still the man that took my hand and told me to run." Her voice broke on the last word.

"Yes, I am," answered the Doctor with a watery smile of his own as he touched his forehead to hers. "Forever."

Her smile became bright and tongue touched as she blinked the gathered tears away. "So, have you seen Sarah Jane lately?" she asked, now that the serious conversation was over.

"Actually yes," he said and they began to walk to the others, hand in hand. "A couple of rouge Shansheeth managed to trick me from the TARDIS and transport it to Earth where they, with the help of a UNIT traitor proceeded to tell Sarah and Jo Grant-Jones, another old friend of mine, that I was dead. I, of course, had to go and help them because the Shansheeth were trying to use the Rassilon Imprimatur to recreate the TARDIS' key to get inside and stop death from ever happening in the Universe, which would have created a paradox so massive the reapers would have swallowed the whole Universe," he finished with a dramatic gesture as they reached the others. "By the way, she has a son now, called Luke. She adopted him after the Bane made him from the genetic code of everyone who visited their _Bubble Shock!_ factory. I met him too, along with Jo's grandson, Santiago. Nice, clever young men, but they'd have to be, being related to Jo and Sarah. And you can't tell me about that either. And I really should stop talking, I'm giving you entirely too much information about the future," he said sheepishly.

"You still babble," Rose laughed as the Doctor helped her down to sit on the blanket. "But you're not nearly as rude as you used to be."

The Doctor looked at her with wide, green eyes, imitating the expression of his previous self instinctively and sat down, letting their shoulders touch. "You don't think it might be because I've missed you and am just happy to see you?"

"Nah, you weren't this polite to Sarah Jane when we ran into her," she snorted.

"But I've missed you more than I ever missed Sarah," the Doctor said earnestly. "You don't know it yet, but when I lost you the first time, I would have died had I not met Donna, you'll even visit that particular parallel world. The second time I lost you, it literally drove me crazy. I snapped out of it, of course, but thankfully I regenerated soon after. Regeneration is supposed to make us Time Lords functional, see, and sometime that includes numbing negative feelings. It's happened twice now, right after the Time War, before I met you, when I grew my big ears, and then after you. I can safely say that the Time War has been relegated to the second worst thing to have happened to me."

"And what about now, when I leave and go back to the younger you? What'll happen to you now?" Rose asked, concerned.

The Doctor smiled dryly. "I've had centuries to learn to exist without you. It can't be called living, how can it, I'm missing my hearts after all, but I can manage. My last self literally couldn't exist without you, I didn't really want to. After I lost you that first time, I was dead inside, why not let the outside match? Now I keep buggering on because I know you're out there, somewhere, running around, wandering off, your hand clasped in mine and your tongue peeking out from behind your teeth when you smile. I can't let the Universe implode or Earth get destroyed because… I can't imagine my life without you, I don't want to know who I'd be if I never met you. The Earth quite literally has to survive until the Sun expands because you were there to witness it. And the human race too, because you've met Cassandra, the last pure human." He turned to look across the lake. Then he turned his attention to the picnic basket and took out a bottle of red wine and four glasses. "Ah! Here it is! Napoleon gave me this bottle. Well, I say gave. More like threw it at me." He poured the wine to everyone else but kept the bottle to himself as River took a plate of cheese and grapes from the picnic basket. The Doctor laid down, letting his head rest in Rose's lap.

"Salut!" they cried when they toasted, Amy's voice ringing loudest. River was laying on her stomach, watching Rose with dark eyes, mouth pursed slightly. Rory was laying on his side, one arm supporting himself. Amy and Rose were the only ones sitting upright, Rose with one hand running though the Doctor's hair and the other holding a familiar wine glass, the one from one of her and the Doctor's safer trips to a beautiful but uninhabited worlds where they'd relaxed on a picnic. She was thrilled he still remembered that she had said the glasses they'd used were the most beautiful glasses she'd ever seen and had brought it along in case she did come along.

"Doctor, you said something about space in 1969," Amy said eventually. "So, when are we going? And since when do you drink wine?"

"I'm eleven hundred and three, I must've drunk it some time," he said, took a sip and spat it right back out, though fortunately (for him) not on Rose or the blankets.

Rose sighed. "You used to be able to drink wine but this must be the first time in this regeneration," she said indulgently with a small smile.

"Yes, well, then I also had much more sensitive taste buds than now so I was able to enjoy the nuances," the Doctor whined. "I used to like this stuff, remember Rose, picnic in ancient Greece?"

"Right after we left Mickey in that parallel world," Rose agreed. "I still think you were trying to cheer me up no matter what you said about winding down after meeting the Cybermen."

"Well, I was, I'd just lost you your boyfriend and your mother honestly scares me," agreed the Doctor. "But 1969… I once got stuck in 1969 and not because of being exiled for once."

"Who's that?" Amy asked, looking over the Doctor's shoulder.

"Who's who?" asked Rory, looking at his wife who, when she looked at him, asked what he was talking about.

"Ah! Look at the Moon. Big silvery thing in the sky. But you lot, you weren't satisfied with just looking, were you? You couldn't resist," the Doctor nearly lamented. "Quite right too."

"Wasn't Moon landing in '69?" Rory pointed out, getting excited. "Oh my god, is that where we're going?"

"A lot more happened in '69 than anyone remembers," the Doctor said vaguely. "Human beings… I thought I'd never get done saving you."

A car drove up behind them, about a hundred feet up the slope. The Doctor stood and helped Rose up, waving to the man who came out. The man lifted a hand in return but stayed where he was.

"Who's he?" Amy asked, frowning. "Another old friend you haven't mentioned?"

River and Rory stood up too, River staring at the lake. "Oh my god," she exhaled.

Rose noticed how tense the Doctor had become and reasoned the fixed point was closing in on them. She turned to look at the lake and saw something more than weird: an astronaut stood in the lake, a proper astronaut with a helmet and oxygen tank on its back.

"You all need to stay back," the Doctor ordered as he took a few steps towards the astronaut. "Whatever happens now you do not interfere. Clear?"

Rose grabbed his hand and turned him around. When they were face to face, she drew his head down and kissed him squarely on the mouth. For a quarter of a second the Doctor didn't respond but then his lips began moving against hers desperately. Five seconds later he drew back, a bitter sweet smile on his face. "You'll find him again, I promise. Goodbye, my Rose," he whispered, the leaned in and whispered something to her that the TARDIS didn't translate before leaning back. "Keep it secret, keep it safe." He forced himself to walk away from her, walking backwards to hold her hand for a second longer and to see her for ten more seconds.

Rose saw him talk to the astronaut, making some gestures with his hands. The astronaut lifted its visor and eventually pointed at the Doctor. When the first energy bolt left the extended finger, Rose closed her eyes, because it really wasn't fair, even if she didn't know this version of the Doctor all that much. But for the last fifteen minutes he'd been the Doctor, her Doctor, and she couldn't bear to see him die… even if she knew he'd really be fine. She heard another shot and opened her eyes just in time to see him begin regenerating. He was looking at her and she saw him mouth words that could have been an apology. When the golden regeneration energy exploded the astronaut released another energy bolt, interrupting the regeneration and making him flop to the sand like marionette that had its strings cut.

She wasn't aware of what Amy, Rory and River were doing but once the Doctor was still on the sand she sprinted past them and was the first to reach his already cooling body. "Doctor," she said urgently, turning his head, feeling for a pulse on his neck. His eyes were closed and there was no thrumming under her fingers and she didn't hear him breathe. When Amy crashed to her side she moved to cradle his head in her lap, in an antic parody of the position they'd been in mere minutes ago.

She was blind and deaf to the world around her but for the Doctor now resting on her lap, but for some reason she looked up and saw herself standing by the TARDIS. She saw herself nod to herself before going into the TARDIS. Ten seconds later the TARDIS dematerialized.

Rose turned her gaze back to the Doctor and just sat there, tears streaming down her face, cradling his head in her lap. Sometime during this someone had fetched one of the blankets they'd sat on and put it around her shoulders. Then masculine but gentle hands pried her hands off the Doctor and lifted him up. Silently Rose watched Rory carry the Time Lord's body to the boat and River douse the body and boat with petrol. She sat there in the sand, watching the body burn in the boat on the lake and in steps her awareness of her surroundings returned to her.

"Who are you?" she heard River ask the man who'd brought the petrol. "Why did you come?"

"Same reason as you," the man said and Rose saw him take a blue envelope from his pocket. She also saw River take out her own envelope and compare them somehow. Rose guessed it had something to do with the numbers and felt slighted that her envelope had a zero on it. "Doctor Song, Amy, Rory. I'm Canton Everett Delaware the third. I won't be seeing you again, but you'll be seeing me. Rose my dear, be careful, this will be dangerous." He turned and walked away after nodding his farewells.

"Four," River said with wide eyes, looking at Amy and Rory.

"Sorry, what?"

"The Doctor numbered the envelopes," River vocalized what Rose had realized after seeing the others.

Rose took out her envelope and stood up, giving the envelope to River apathetically and made her way to the Doctor's now ownerless car. She climbed in the passenger side. She'd have driven but she didn't have permission to drive in USA… and her hands were shaking too badly for comfort.

When they entered a diner Amy went first, then River and Rory discussing the numbers, going over who had which number and what that meant, and Rose entered last, face still unreadable, but she had calmed down some since they left the lake. Her eyes swept over the diner, taking in details, and her eyes fell on the missing envelope on an empty table. She turned to the cashier. "Excuse me, who sat over there?" she asked pointing to the table.

"Some guy," answered man and continued to sweep the counter.

_Some guy?_ thought Rose. The Doctor had said it was the beginning of a circular paradox so that meant it would be the younger Doctor. Where he was at the moment (restroom? Fetching a straw? Having seen something shiny that distracted him?) she had no idea but she was confident he'd be back any minute now and therefore strode up to the table and sat down, taking a swing of the opened pop. It wasn't like they hadn't shared a drink before. She knew the others were giving her odd looks while arguing but she held up the envelope over her shoulder to show them. If they couldn't connect the dots it wasn't her fault.

River snatched the envelope from her. "The Doctor knew he was going to his death," River said and Rose fought a smile. That could be debated, thank God. "So he sent out messages. When you know it's the end, who do you call?"

"Uh… your friends, people you trust," reasoned Rory.

"Number one. Who did the Doctor trust the most?" asked River, purposefully excluding Rose.

"Himself," answered Rose as the backdoor opened and in walked the Doctor. He looked at River, Amy and Rory, smiling and pointing at each on their turn, not having noticed Rose yet.

"This is cold," River said with disbelief. "Even by your standards this is cold."

"Or 'Hello' as people used to say," the younger Doctor joked.

"Doctor?" asked Amy, voice wavering.

"Just popped out to get my special straw," he grinned. "It adds more fizz."

Amy walked over to him and Rose watched, amused, as she circled the Doctor, straightening his bow tie. "You're okay? How can you be okay?"

"Hey, of course I'm okay, I'm the King of okay," he said and hugged her, frowning slightly. "Oh, that's a rubbish title, don't ever call me that." He let go of Amy and with three steps was hugging Rory. "Rory the Roman! Now there's a good title. Hello Rory!"

Rose bit back a chuckle as Rory hesitantly pated his back a few times before gesturing helplessly at River. The Doctor let him go and turned to River. "And Doctor River Song. You bad, bad girl, what sort of trouble do you have-" He stopped when his eyes strayed to Rose, sitting behind River.

They stared at each other, Rose smiling gently and the Doctor wide eyed with disbelief. "Hello," she said, as was their habit after being apart.

The Doctor took River by the shoulders and bodily moved her out of the way, ignoring that she stumbled when he let her go. He took half a step forward before closing his eyes and reaching forward, as if to make sure she was really there. When his finger was met with solid cloth over flesh his eyes flew open. Slowly a smile crept on his face. "Hello," he answered tenderly back before gathering her in a hug, lifting her from the chair and burrowing his face into her neck. Rose wasn't sure but she could've sworn she felt her shirt get damp.

Her feet dangling in the air, Rose wrapped her arms around this younger Doctor, having a feeling that he wasn't going to let her go for a while yet. And she was in no hurry to let go either, she'd just witnessed him fake his own death. Over his shoulder she saw River giving her the stink eye and Amy and Rory looking on curiously as the older Doctor hadn't really explained who she was.

Eventually though he put her down, even if he didn't let her go. "Rose Tyler, what are you doing here?"

Rose grinned, her tongue peeking out. "I was invited, if you'll remember."

Realization dawned on his face. "That's why the envelope and card seemed so familiar! You cheeky thing! You didn't tell me I'd regenerated! Which means the invitation was from an even older me which in turn means it's the beginning of a circular paradox!" he grinned back before his smile fell. "Which in turn means something has happened to close the paradox and you all know what it is but can't tell me because it's in my future." He turned to his other friends, Rose still safely in his arms. "Did I leave us a clue?"

"Space, 1969 and a man called Dalton Everett Delaware the Third," answered Rory. "But I don't understand, how come you're here?"

"What ever happened earlier today happened to an older me," the Doctor answered. "Time is all bumpy-wumpy and wibly-wobly and sometimes time travelers are aware of things in the wrong order. Of course, since it was me, I wanted my friends to be with me since I know something is going to happen but because it has to be younger you than the versions that me'd be currently traveling with to begin the circular paradox, I send the invitations to you, and Rose, because that me'll remember getting a similar invitation and meeting up with you after you'd just gotten the invitations. Simple."

"Amy, ask him what age he is," River said, voice unsteady, looking at him.

"That's a bit personal," tutted the Doctor.

"Answer her," River demanded even though Amy hadn't even opened her mouth.

"Nine-hundred and nine," the Doctor lied.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," Rose told him under her breath and he hid a smile in her hair.

"But you just said-" Amy began.

"No, my older self said and you can't tell me anything, it's something I have to live myself," the Doctor said in a tone that said the conversation was over.

"Where does that leave us, huh?" asked River. "Jim the fish? Have we done Jim the fish yet?"

"Who's Jim the fish?" asked the Doctor curiously. "Well, if you're done gossiping, to infinity! And beyond! No, wait, that's Toy Story… But still, the point stands! To the TARDIS! Rose, grab my pop."

"I would if you let go of one of my hands," answered Rose.

"You have more than two limbs!" protested the Doctor.

"I'm not gonna carry it in my mouth and I actually need my legs to walk," she pointed out.

"So if I carry you, you can use your legs to carry my pop."

"If you're gonna carry me, it'd be easier for you to let go of my hands. I could ride piggyback if you insist, but otherwise I'd prefer to walk, thanks."

"Cheeky Rose Tyler! But then I couldn't see you and for all I know, you'd disappear in thin air."

Rose craned her neck to look at him and arched an eyebrow. "Disappear into thin air? Really? Have I ever done that?"

"Well, there was that time on the Game Station… And you tend to wander off."

"Now that's the pot calling the kettle black."

"Touché." They stared at each other, now at a stale mate. Then they started laughing and the Doctor let Rose's right hand go before twirling her about, like he had when they'd picked up Jack. Or, well, he tried but he ended up trapping Rose's arm behind her back, making them laugh all that much harder.

"I have to teach you to dance all over again," she mock complained as she took the half empty bottle of pop, letting him lead her through the back door to the TARDIS. "By the way Doctor, you're being extremely rude to your friends, you didn't even introduce me to them when it really should've been the first thing you did. After hugging me, that is."

"Ah, you're fishing for future information, miss Tyler, and you know I can't tell you anything," the Doctor grinned at her and opened the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers. "Ladies first."

"Why thank you sir Doctor," she grinned at him as she entered.

"My pleasure dame Rose," he beamed back. "Take a look at the TARDIS! We've redecorated!"

Rose turned to look at the inside of the TARDIS. Instead of metal and coral the control room was dominated by a cheerful orange metal covering and glass floor. The console dais was higher than in the old control room, leaving there a pit under the console for repairs rather than having to open up the floor grating. There were also several staircases instead of one hallway that split deeper in the ship. The humming of the ship was slightly different now, like she'd been sick recently and had just gotten better but was still weary. But the humming brightened when Rose stepped deeper into the control room, like she was welcoming Rose home. Rose turned back to the Doctor and beamed.

"She's cheerful and off-kilter, just like you," she teased him. "At least you still have that coat rack even if you never use it. But what did you do to her? She sounds like she's been sick recently! You haven't been in parallel universes lately, have you?"

The Doctor startled. He shook his head. "No, no parallel universes. She, uh… actually she, uh, exploded, a while ago. I had to reboot the universe. Big Bang two. I, umm, got erased from time for a minute but then Amy remembered me again and here I am."

"You got erased from time," she repeated as Amy, Rory and River entered. "You got erased from time?! You… you… self-sacrificing moron! What were you thinking? Were you thinking at all? Do you always do things like this when I'm not there? First you try to get killed by Daleks, alone. Then you decide to go looking for the devil, also alone. Now you get erased from time? What next? You gonna marry a paradox and then wonder where it is when it disappears from your life when it's over? No, maybe you're gonna go to your tomb and enter your own time stream? Or, or, got to the end of the universe, rescue the people there and take them back in time to the present where they proceed to cause the biggest paradox ever?" she shouted at him, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Hey! That paradox wasn't my fault! The Master was the one to take the humans from the end of the universe, cannibalize TARDIS and then proceed to kill half of the human race! I just righted the paradox, leading to a year that only about ten people remember," he nodded at the end importantly.

Rose threw her hands in the air in despair. "Are you always this helpless without me?" she demanded.

The Doctor looked at her seriously. "Yes. When I met you, I was at my most dangerous until then. Then I met you and I learned to live again. Before I regenerated I was ready to die to keep you safe but after, I was ready to stay alive and face the music with you, I wanted to stay alive and with you. After I lost you… I did some things I'm not proud of."

"Both times?" Rose asked quietly, voice wavering. She knew what he meant, the older one had said enough, but it still didn't make things any easier on her. She'd lose him twice.

Silently the Doctor nodded, his shoulders hunched forward and head bowed to hide his building tears. "The first time I committed genocide. Again. The second time I altered a fixed point. Never doing that again. And I don't know what I'll do this time because I know you're here on borrowed time because I remember you telling me you were gone for a week." His voice broke. "And I'm not sure I'm strong enough to stand it."

Rose stepped forward and pulled the Doctor to her, guiding his head to the crook of her neck, letting him hide his falling tears. "Hey now," she soothed him, "let's be positive, we know you're gonna see me again one day," she whispered and ran her fingers through his hair.

"You're addictive Rose Tyler," he whispered so quietly Rose wasn't sure she was supposed to hear it. "As long as you're with me I'm fine but soon as I lose you I go into withdrawal and do something horrible."

She held him to her until he'd stopped crying and he straightened himself. She then straightened his bow-tie and smiled. "I see you took my advice. Bow-ties are cool."

The Doctor preened, his red eyes shining with happiness. "Yes they are," he agreed with a large, genuine smile. "So, space, 1969 and a man called Canton Everett Delaware the third. I had the answer, let's go meet the clues! River, close the doors."

Amy went straight to the pit under the console, River hot on her heels dragging Rose by her wrist. Thirty seconds later Rory joined them.

"Explain it to me again," Amy pleaded River, sitting on the concrete.

"The Doctor we saw on the beach is a future version," River said calmly. "One two hundred years older than the one up there."

"But all that's still gonna happen, he's still gonna die," Amy said, sounding like she'd rather die herself.

"Everything must come to dust," Rose said with a far-away voice. "All things. Everything dies." She shook her head. "Even the Doctor."

"But we don't all arrange our own wakes and invite ourselves," Rory said, making Rose giggle. That reminded her of her second (no, third, the first one was the Nestene Consciousness) adventure with the Doctor. Mr. Sneed had said that someone who had been possessed by the Gelth had almost walked into their own funeral.

"And you! You knew didn't you," Amy turned to her. "He told you something on the beach. I was watching and for a second you looked terrified! But when the time comes, you just… kiss him and send him to die?"

"It's what women have done for centuries, Amy," Rose said gently. "Even the Scottish ones. We kiss the men we love and send them to the fight where they die. But this is more complicated than that. This is the beginning of a circular paradox. If he hadn't died, we wouldn't be here now, talking about his death. If we weren't here, maybe someday the Doctor would miss something important to someone which, in time, leads to his death. If we don't let him," she pointed at the younger Doctor, "die at the beach, who knows how big the wound in time will be because the Doctor does a lot in two hundred years and it will all be put in motion on how we handle this."

"But… it's the Doctor," Amy argued.

"Have you ever seen the results of a paradox?" asked Rose. "Because I have. I asked the Doctor to go see the day my dad died and I saved him. But, thing is, if my hadn't died, I probably never would've left school and ended up working in a store where I met the Doctor, meaning I wouldn't have gone back in time to save my dad. That's not even the worst. These things called the reapers come when time is wounded and they, shall we say, cleans the cut, meaning they eat everything inside the cut. They ate the Doctor. As soon as my dad walked in front of the car that should've killed him earlier that morning, the Doctor came back. If we don't let him die on that beach, he could be worse than dead."

"Rose is right," River said. "It's a fixed point in time too."

The Doctor struck his head down from the edge of the glass floor to look at them. "I'm being extremely clever up here and there's no one standing around looking impressed. What's the point in having you all?" he pouted. "Except Rose, the TARDIS always flies better when she's on board." He withdrew his head.

"Couldn't you just slap him sometimes?" hissed River before stalking up the stairs.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Once Canton had confirmed that the soldiers outside couldn't hear them, the Doctor freed himself of the shackles and straight jacket and Amy and Rory fought their way out of the body bags.

"Finally!" Amy exclaimed, panting. She had tack marks all over her arms and face.

"These things could really do with air holes," complained Rory who was also covered in tack marks.

"Never had that complaint before," Canton rolled his eyes. They were body bags. What had they expected?

"Won't it look odd if you stay the whole day with us?" asked Amy, looking at Canton.

"Don't worry, they know there's no way out of this place," answered Canton.

"Exactly!" said the Doctor, stretching his sore muscles. "So whatever they think we're doing in here, they know we're not going anywhere," he said and righted his braces before letting himself fall against the invisible TARDIS. "Shall we?" he said with a smirk and snapped his fingers, opening the TARDIS doors.

"What about Dr. Song? She ran off the roof top!" Canton asked and followed everyone inside.

"Don't worry, she does that," the Doctor said and closed the doors. "Amy, Rory, open all the doors to the swimming pool! And then come back!"

When they were back and River was safe again, the Doctor turned to them again. "Any sign of Rose?"

"Who?" frowned Amy.

"Rose, the blond girl who was with you?" Canton pointed out. "But she disappeared off the map six days into the hunt for you," he told the Doctor. "No one's seen her since."

The Doctor closed his eyes to keep tears from building. "She said a week," he whispered. "I just didn't think that meant only one day with me."

"Who are you talking about?" Rory asked.

"Ah, no one," the Doctor said, faking cheerfulness for the humans, trying to mask the hurt in his voice as he started flipping levers on the console. He should've known after all.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Rose woke up with sun in her eyes, which was strange since TARDIS never let her sleep until the artificial sun outside her window was so high up. Nor would TARDIS make her bed so damn hard.

In fact, something was digging into her back quite painfully.

When she felt wind on her face her eyes snapped open. And stayed open.

She was staring at the sky, wondering what she was doing outside. The Doctor and she had been on their way to see her mum… no, wait, they'd already seen her but had to leave because of the TARDIS blue letter. And she'd met the new new new Doctor, the one with the bow-tie, twice. And she'd met President Nixon. And they were looking for the Silence, and she had no idea what they looked like.

She sat up quickly and looked around. She was on the shore of Lake Silencio again. This time there was no one there. No Doctor, no TARDIS, no new companions.

How had she gotten there? Her assignment had been Canada. She'd been in Vancouver before she blacked out.

She looked at her arms. They were clean. She knew she'd had at least a couple dozen tacks covering her arms. Come to think of it, she was also dressed in the clothes she'd had when she left her Doctor's TARDIS, rather than in the jeans, boots and a blue leather jacket she'd been wearing in Vancouver. She didn't even have her marking pen around her neck. She had seen herself enter the TARDIS when everyone else were occupied with the Doctor's body, dressed just like she had been, clean of all the dirt that she'd gotten over her clothes from the sand. But she'd figured the Doctor had brought her back after they'd taken care of the Silence. Apparently not.

She heard the TARDIS materializing just ten feet to her right. She'd have to hide until the time was right, she realized and sprinted to hide behind the TARDIS as her younger self came out for the first time. That meant it was 16:30. Fifteen minutes of pointless waiting around before anything interesting would begin.

Might as well admire the sights.

She took out her miniature spyglass and started to sweep the horizon and the opposite side of the lake. She felt her stomach turning, in a similar way that happened after she'd seen and forgotten a Silent and slowed her sweep, trying to ascertain whether or not there were Silents over there.

After she caught three in her spyglass she automatically reached for her marking pen that wasn't there and she cursed under her breath. She knew she'd have to mark something, so she scratched herself, hoping it'd last at least until she was back inside the TARDIS.

When she turned her spyglass away, she hissed and looked at her arm, wondering what had scratched her, and paled when she noticed three scratched tack marks on her arm. She didn't have a pen, so she'd scratched herself to make herself remember. The things she does for the Doctor and human race.

Rose heard a car approaching and knew it was the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River because her younger self just exited the TARDIS. She heard her joyous shout when the car doors were opened and closed. She peaked from behind the TARDIS at the scene on the beach and smiled. She really liked this new new new Doctor, maybe she'd even fall in love with him like she'd done with her first and second Doctors.

She saw the Doctor take her a little out of the way to talk to her while Amy, Rory and River set up the picnic. She didn't need the spyglass to see the worried and jealous looks River sent her younger self. When she and the Doctor joined them on the blankets she smiled at the obvious show of affection between the two and seared the image into her mind. Hundreds of years after she was gone, he still loved her.

Keeping the spyglass at the ready, because she wanted to know who, for all purposes, killed the Doctor. She knew it was someone the Doctor knew because he'd talked to the astronaut and if it was someone the Doctor knew, there was a chance so would she. It was a small chance, but still. She knew she couldn't stop this, had been unable to stop this since she'd gotten the envelope.

The astronaut walked out of the lake and the Doctor went to it and Rose brought the spyglass up just as the astronaut lifted the visor. Rose nearly dropped the spyglass because she knew the woman in the suit and knew she'd never willingly kill the Doctor. It was River Song and she was shaking her head and crying. The River further on the beach was holding Amy back when the first shot rang in the still air. The second and third follow and the Doctor dropped and Rose had to keep from running over there and punching River, even as River shot at her retreating self in the astronaut suit.

She watched her younger self cradle the Doctor's body, even as Amy threw herself on the Doctor's still chest. She tucked the spyglass into her bum bag and stood by the TARDIS until her younger self saw her and entered the familiar coral filled console room. The Doctor was tinkering with something on the console and looked up when she closed the door, smiling widely.

Rose sprinted the ten steps separating them and hugged him tightly. "I've missed you," she whispered to him and he made a happy sound, like he can't imagine anything better than her missing him. Except maybe holding her after she's missed him.

"How long were you gone?" he asked after setting her down and sending the TARDIS into the vortex.

"A week," she answered carefully, not mentioning that she'd been with him only for a day. Let him hope. "I met some future companions. I really liked Rory, he reminded me of a male me, forever loyal and always willing to help."

"No, don't tell me more," the Doctor said, holding up a hand to stop her, grinning. "I want to be surprised."

"Oh, you will be," Rose laughed gaily. "I'm gonna take a shower and sleep and then we're going back to mum's but after that, I really wanna go to Barcelona."

The Doctor smiled. "As you wish."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This is the second part. I hope you like it and tell me about it.

Epilogue is still WIP but it should answer at least some questions (such as: why do Amy and Rory not remember Rose?) and should be out... some time. Once again I'm not promising anything, but hopefully I have it out and posted within a week.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'* '

Rose Noble was ninety-seven when she died in a hospital and woke up again.

How, she had no idea. Where she was, she didn't know. Who the people in lab coats around her were, was a mystery to her. But she knew something was wrong when she couldn't move.

"Seventy-seven years," a man with a clipboard said.

"Longest a flesh has survived," one of the women in lab coats said. "And in a parallel universe too. I still don't understand how the signal got through the walls."

"Subject B4-DM-01-F seems to be conscious and even aware," another man said, checking Rose's eyes. She tried to speak but her voice wouldn't obey. "It appears to be trying to speak. Could it really survive that long being sedated and source for the signal?"

"The body hasn't aged at all as long as I've been here," one of the older men said, drawing some of Rose's blood. "And I've been here closer to sixty years."

"I still don't understand, what is it?" asked one of the younger women.

"We don't know, but we know it's important to the Doctor, important enough to be invited to his death."

Doctor's death? _That_ happened to her seventy-seven years ago! Did that mean she'd been, what, sleeping this whole time? No! She and Donny had had children! Sarah Jane and Jack and Timothy and Sally and Donna and Martin! And what was _flesh_ anyway? It didn't exactly sound benevolent. Did this have something to do with the Silence? Had they done this to her? When she'd been in Vancouver and then woken up in Utah, had they taken her and replaced her with this _flesh_? Why did it need a signal?

She closed her eyes and took as deep a breath as she could. What do you do when you've been comatose for a long time? _Wiggle your toes_, as Beatrix Kiddo did in _Kill Bill_. Getting the synapses working through the whole body because toes were the farthest from the brain, meaning getting them to work was preparing the rest of the body to receive orders. She wished she had tea, superheated free radicals and tannin, good for heating up and repairing synapses.

She ignored the scientists around her, even when they told her to stay awake, as she concentrated on her toes. Apparently she'd already waited seventy-seven years for the Doctor. She wouldn't wait any longer, never mind five-and-a-half hours. She was getting herself out of this place and find out what was going on.

For the next few days she did nothing more than try to wiggle her toes, even when her control of her face returned slowly. Whenever someone disturbed her (and the scientists did that a lot) she'd glare at the older ones with her best 'leave-me-alone-and-die' glare that she'd perfected over her career at Torchwood. It was much different from her 'let-mum-work-now' glare that she'd perfected for her children, and she found that particular glare more effective on the younger scientists and soldiers around her.

Finally, after three days, her toes wiggled, not that anyone noticed. Her smile was predatory.

"Can I have some water, please," was the first thing she said to her captors, two weeks into her silent physiotherapy, having last night gotten her voice to somewhat normal.

The reactions from the scientists were more than amusing, some freezing where they were, others dropping what they were holding.

"Excuse me?" asked the closest one.

"Can I have some water, please, my mouth is quite dry," Rose rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't say no to tea either, but I suppose I should start with small requests, seeing as you have me here as some kind of science experiment and I don't want to be shackled for, I don't know, being too demanding. But if someone would be so kind, I take my tea strong, with two sugars and no milk."

"It talks," one of the slower men said out loud.

"She is a she and she has a name, thank you," answered Rose, still laying down. Wouldn't want to shock them too bad on the first time.

"And what's your name?" asked one of the kinder scientists.

"Why don't you tell me where I am first and then we can play twenty questions," Rose asked back.

"Kelly, go make the tea," one of the head scientists ordered one of the assistants. She walked closer to Rose. "You are on the asteroid military base Demon's run."

"And the year?" Rose asked innocently.

"5176," the same scientist answered.

"I'm Rose Tyler-Noble," Rose told them her name. "An old companion to the Doctor, but I suppose you already knew that, given that I was taken after witnessing his death. You're working with the Silence?"

"How do you know that?" one of the other scientists asked.

Rose smiled at him. "I'm the very best."

That evening she had already been placed in a spacious cell room where she had the facilities, a bed and a desk. For now they provided a nurse to take care of her and help with her physiotherapy. The door was only capable of being reached on top of the stairs and Rose knew it would take some time before she should even try climbing them but that night she stood for the first time on her own. Yes, she needed to hold onto the back of the chair but she stood on her own.

A month into her new room, which she hadn't left since, the whole base went on yellow alert and the scientists probing her became scares. "Do you guys have a new project?" she asked one of the assistant scientists still visiting her.

"Yes ma'am," Kelly said as she took the weekly blood. "Amelia Pond is here, with her baby. The baby is human plus, we're trying to make her half-human."

"And half-what?"

"Time Lord, ma'am. She was conceived inside the Time Vortex, making it easier."

"Why?" Rose frowned.

"I don't know ma'am, I'm here just because I'm smart enough and grew up in one of the Church's orphanages," answered Kelly truthfully.

"So Silence is a religious order?"

"Yes ma'am." They were quiet for a moment. "Madam Kovarian hopes to lure the Doctor here. It's why we're on yellow alert, everyone has to be on their sharpest in case he comes."

"Kelly, what's flesh? I still don't understand."

"A flesh avatar is often used in dangerous jobs. The body is controlled by the original person but they might not even be aware of being inside flesh, like you," Kelly explained. "Amelia Pond had a flesh avatar with the Doctor for the whole duration of her pregnancy and she didn't know."

So the Doctor was coming, just not for her. He was coming for Amelia Pond and her daughter. But the old Doctor, whose fake death she'd witnessed, had said she'd find him, again. At first she thought he'd meant after the battle of Canary Wharf, but maybe he'd been talking about this too. He may not know she was there, but now she knew he was coming. Better step up the physiotherapy. She had to be able to run.

Not too long after, the base went on red alert and Rose wanted to laugh. The universal color for danger was mauve and these ignorant humans didn't even know that, even this far in the future. They were lucky they didn't employ other alien races than the Silents. At least she knew what she was doing. She had asked for mauve clothes just for this, because there was no way she was going to go around in a white hospital gown. Kelly had arranged for a mauve dress, mauve shirt, mauve hoodie, mauve jacket, mauve trousers, black trousers and mauve sneakers to be brought to her and now Rose put on the mauve shirt, mauve jacket, black trousers and the mauve sneakers. Her hair she pulled to a ponytail and waited. Someone would check for life signs sooner or later and then they would take her to the Doctor.

But no one came. Not the Silence, not medical staff, not the Doctor or his friends. Rose's door stayed locked, even when she tried to open it herself. Hours went by and nothing happened. Her clock went from 2 pm. to 5 pm. to 8 pm. to 11 pm. and nothing. The base didn't blow up, there was no noise outside her room and she saw no one.

She was alone in the base.

At least the facilities still worked, as did the food delivery.

For three weeks she exercised daily to get into shape and tried to think of ways to leave her cell. If she got to out of the door and to the unrestricted base she might be able to build some kind of emergency beacon (hopefully a temporal emergency beacon that broadcasted to TARDIS specifically but she wouldn't be picky if some time agent showed up and "offered" their vortex manipulator) so that she might get back to civilization. She had no desire to live her life alone on an abandoned asteroid base built by people who wanted to kill the Doctor. She didn't know how long the food stock would last and whether or not she'd survive without food since she didn't seem to age. For all she knew she was like Jack, never dying, but she thought it was more likely she was more like the Doctor, not aging but with a finite amount of lives.

Then, on the twenty-second day of being alone, the door to her cell-room opened. Rose assumed it was some kind of security measure, lock down for three weeks after an attack or something similar. She explored the base and hacked the computer. The amount of information on the Doctor was astounding, starting from his first form and ending with his eleventh, the one with the bowtie. There was a list of all his companions and what he did with each of them and what happened to them, whether or not they died or were displaced or left behind for some reason or another. The file on her was impressive if overly clinical but there was a link to Jack's file, like they were more linked together than just having traveled with the Doctor at the same time. She followed the link and found a massive file on Jack – and his current location. Right there on Demon's Run.

She hadn't yet explored the deeper parts of the base but after locating Jack in the inner schematics, she took running down the stairs to the bowels of the base. She called his name when she got to the right corridor, and again when she was at his door, forcing it open.

The room was dark but Rose could see a table in the middle of the room. The body of a skinny man was strapped there, his groin barely covered. "Jack," she said as she rushed over to him and started unbuckling the straps holding him there. His muscles were gone and he was flesh and bones, like Rose had been months before, and he was hooked up on some kind of IV, but he was aware, eyes open and he radiated joy at seeing her.

"Rose," he croaked, throat dry.

"Hello," Rose smiled at him brightly.

"Hello," he smiled back.

"Yes, hello," she said again. "I saw this once very handsome man strapped to a table and I could free him. I never stood a chance."

"You wouldn't, would you?" He coughed. "Water?"

"Just a second," Rose said and finished unbuckling him before going over to the automated refreshment dispenser wired to the wall and ordered a jug of water. After it'd materialized she brought it over to Jack who'd struggled to sit up. "Here," she said and helped him drink. "Not too much at once, you don't have the energy to spare to barf it back up. Jack, do you know how long you've been here?"

"About…" he frowned and took another sip of water, "fifty years or so. You?"

"Seventy-seven, close to seventy-eight now," answered Rose without looking at him. "I've been aware for three months, before that I was kept sedated and living my life through a flesh copy of myself."

"I'm sorry," Jack said sympathetically. "Do you know what happened three weeks ago? The… staff just left."

"The Doctor happened," Rose deadpanned. "His current companion had been taken here and he came for her, like he always does, but he and his friends didn't bother to check for other prisoners or experiments. He didn't know we were here, otherwise I'm sure he would've at least freed us if not taken us traveling again. But the Silence was generous enough to leave everything where it was, so we have a lot of equipment. I'm not sure about food stock or how long it's going to last, let alone the electricity, but we're fine for now. We have time to get you to a better shape before we even try to leave."

"So I get Mrs. Doctor all to myself for the time being, eh? Not a bad deal," Jack smiled tiredly. "Let's get out of this room, I can't stand it another minute."

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'* '

The next month was spent getting Jack into a better shape, rebuilding his muscles. He at least could move right off the bat, not having been sedated for decades like Rose. In the beginning he also hacked deeper into the Silence's computers, leaving Rose to sort through the data while he built the emergency beacon. The Silence had an abundance of broken time travel technology lying around the base, so Jack could rig the emergency beacon to only attract those capable of time travel.

The time travelers they attracted wasn't who they hoped though.

The Teselecta's crew were happy to have them on board though, since they were investigating the Silence and their part in the Doctor's death. They offered Rose and Jack room and board in exchange for any information they had on the Silence and then offered them jobs. Rose, having had enough of leading military, accepted a place in HR, and Jack went to the R&D department. Whether he researched potential criminals or created new weapons, Rose didn't ask.

They lived there close to eighteen months, until they found themselves on the docks of Calisto B, having taken the form of Gideon Vandaleur. The Teselecta was in the back room of a rather seedy pub, when the bar keeper said they were wanted at the front. Notification were sent to Rose and Jack immediately, but they weren't at the bridge in time to tell the Doctor they were there. Captain Carter had agreed to deliver the Doctor's messages and to meet him a few hours before the Doctor's recorded death. He'd apparently had an idea just when he was walking out of the door.

Delivering the messages was done quickly, one sent to Rose in mid spring 2006, London, one to the Ponds, London, and one to Canton Everett Delaware the third, Salt Lake City, in 2011, one to River Song in Stormcage 5154 and one to the younger Doctor in 3429, Pluto.

Rose told Jack not to tell the Doctor she was there yet, because she hadn't gotten the shift off and wanted their reunion to be in person rather than by Jack as the messenger. The Doctor might get overly excited and kiss him. Rose doubted Jack would mind terribly but she wasn't sure the Doctor wouldn't after he'd calmed down a bit.

It was when something went wrong that she met the Doctor again.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

She didn't know how long the world had been wrong, she couldn't tell, but she knew in her bones it was wrong. She kept telling people, kept trying to rouse them from their blindness. Dinosaurs had died millions of years ago, the Roman Empire had fallen long before Winston Churchill was born and time was supposed to move, time wasn't supposed to stand still at 5:02 pm. on 22nd of April 2011. Time was supposed to be wonderful, whether it was past, present or future, not this messed up thing it now was.

In her head she saw two different scenes playing, day and night. In one, the man was killed. In the other, the woman who was supposed to kill him, drained her weapons system and didn't kill him.

She knew the man, knew him better than anyone, once. Maybe not this new one, but two other faces floated around her mind with the same title affixed to them. The Doctor. The man who never ages but changes his face. There is a third one, linked to the second face, the one with the great hair, that showed him aging. Memories of him, of Dr. Donny Noble, her husband, a clone of the Doctor, father of her children, were fresh in her mind. They'd been bonded, like it had been custom on Gallifrey, the Doctor's home planet. She knew what he'd gone through, knew him like the back of her hand. She had known before, because of Bad Wolf, but the bond had added the emotional depth to it. But this Doctor who had died was two hundred years older and had so much more experience, experience that might've changed him so that she didn't know him anymore. Yet he had told her his name before dying, she now knew. Her husband, her Donny, had told her his and the Doctor's real name, a name she'd heard on the beach the first time she was there. He had told her his name when he thought he'd never see her again.

Eventually she was arrested for disrupting peace and was taken to the Tower. There she found the man she'd seen die and not-die.

The Doctor.

"Hello," she said through the bars on the opposite side of the cell, chained to the walls as they both were.

He looked up, hair and beard a mess, eyes wide, before a wide smile spread across his face.

"Hello," he said. "What are you here for?"

"Disrupting peace," she snorted. "Good at that, me, just asking the right questions. And you, Doctor? Why are you here, instead of out there, fixing time?"

"I tried, it's why I ended up here," he answered. "I think someone's trying to keep me from interfering."

"You don't say," she said sarcastically. "My money's on River Song, the stubborn child. If any of my children had endangered the universe like this, I'd have turned them over my knee and blistered their backside, no matter their age. In fact, I did that to Jack and Sarah Jane when they almost caused a paradox, trying to save my sweet Donna."

"You look too young to have children," the Doctor pointed out.

"I do, and my children are safe and sound in a parallel universe with their own children and grandchildren. I was ninety-seven when I died, my Donny'd passed several years before me, but no matter how ready I was for the… whatever death is, I woke up here, in my original universe, being tested on by the Silence and finding out the me in the parallel universe had been a flesh avatar. Mind you, I have no idea how I still look bloody twenty, haven't had access to the right equipment to find out. Then time went wrong and I keep telling people, but they just don't listen, not even Charlie."

"Charlie?" asked the Doctor and she is fairly sure she hears a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"Charles Dickens," she nodded. "Met him once, before time went wrong. I was just nineteen then. Ghosts with Charles Dickens at Christmas. A servant girl saved the world and no one but us three knew."

"Rose?" the Doctor asked, voice hesitant.

"Yes Doctor?" she asked, eyes shining brightly, smiling that cheeky tongue-through-teeth smile.

"How…?"

"I told ya, the me that was in the parallel universe was a flesh avatar. When I died there, I woke up on Demon's run unable to move or speak because I hadn't done so for seventy-seven years. The Silence apparently caught me right after I arrived at Vancouver and brought a flesh avatar back to you when you were still the one with the great hair. Of course, since you didn't check Demon's run from top to bottom, me and Jack were the only other prisons that got out of there alive, me because I was unchained and had a low level observation room, and Jack because he can't die. So, a few months after we got free reign of the base, because the Silence never returned there, we managed to gobble together an emergency beacon transmitting to those capable of time travel. The Teselecta was the first one to show up and we took the jobs offered to us. As you know, the Teselecta crew were investigating the Silence, so it was our best bet to find you. And when you found us, you didn't sit still long enough for me to make it from HR to the bridge to tell you we were there. Then, I don't get the shift off when you come to the Teselecta and then time goes wrong. You were supposed to be dying, and I came three times, that has to be some sort of record." She paused for a second. "How are you, Shake?"

As she talked, the Doctor just stared at her, eyes wide and hopeful and so damn tender she wanted nothing more than to be free of those damn chains and go over to him and hold and kiss him. He smiled and leaned his head back, content to just be near her and hear her talk.

"I have missed you, Rose Tyler," he said finally, reaching at her but the distance was too great.

"And I have missed you, Doctor," she answered. "It helped that I knew you'd be okay if not brilliant, but I still worried about you. The mother in me, I suppose. Donny and I, we became domestic when Jack and Sarah Jane were born, transferred to the offices rather than the fields. Well, I did, Donny went to the labs and helped us poor apes figure out the alien tech. After we retired from Torchwood, we wrote books, mostly of your adventures. We were happy and we lived a fantastic life. Thank you for that. But Doctor, if you ever do that to me again, I'll slap you into your next body, okay?"

The Doctor laughed, voice thick. "I don't think I could do it again if I had the choice. I gave you up once and it drove me to insanity. You're well and truly stuck with me, Rose Tyler, until you get sick of me and leave me for a safer life."

"Been there, done that," answered Rose flippantly, waving the thought away. "You told me your name when you thought you'd never see me again," she said, looking him in the eyes.

"Well, yes," admitted the Doctor, looking guilty. "I wanted you to know for sure that, even two centuries after I left you with – Donny, was it? – that I love you, even if I was too much of a coward to tell you when I had the beautiful second chance the universe never gives. Donny would have told it to you anyway, so I thought, why not a few years early."

"Donny told me it was the beginning of a bond, and unfinished it would have continued to pain you for the rest of your life."

"It would've," the Doctor agreed. "But it also would've been another constant reminder of you and of how much I love you."

"Soon as we fix time, we'll finish the bond, yeah?" she smiled at him encouragingly.

He looked gob smacked. "You… you still…?"

"Of course, I told you, you're all my Doctor. As if seventy-nine years away from you would change that. I promised you forever and now I apparently can keep it too," she shrugged with a smile. "So, what's the plan? I mean, how should I act?"

"Ah, yes, you should act like you'd just come from the TARDIS," answered the Doctor. "That should've been the closest you to the epicenter of the time distortion, therefore it would've been the you who'd have gotten stuck inside this alternate reality. I suspect the River we have here is also the younger one, because the older one wouldn't have done this. Since there were two of you outside the Teselecta, you're also outside here, rather than trapped inside. It's weird, you know, being both inside the Teselecta and completely in control of it. It's like I'm in two places at once, and not in the way I'd normally be."

"Any idea on how I can remember that real world? I've tried talking to anyone who'd speak to me, but until you, I was the only one who knew time'd gone wrong."

"Ah! See, being a time traveler, you perceive time differently. Only, you should just have vague recollections of the real world and they should be fading. But, seeing as you've seen the whole of time and space, I suppose it would've made it possible for you to remember everything. It also helps that you're the most stubborn human I've ever met," he beamed at her. "Wouldn't let anything take your memories." They sat in silence for a while, him looking down at the cell floor, her looking at him, cataloguing the differences between him and Donny. "River and I are the opposite poles of the time disruption. I have to touch her for minimum of twelve seconds, maybe longer to short it out. I… may have to use some unconventional methods to do it, but know that, if I do end up kissing her, it will only be to save the Universe." He looked up, eyes pleading for her to believe him. After a while she nodded, shoving her discomfort and jealousy aside. She could stand to see him kiss another woman to save the Universe. She'd seen him kiss Madame De Pompadour and still waited for him for five and a half hours. It'd hurt, but now that she had an early warning, she was sure she could take it like he meant it: a means to an end.

"But," he continued, "you might also short out the distortion as you were in the Teselecta. Though… let's not try that as anything but last resort, we don't want them to know it. You'll know if you need to do it."

Their cell door was opened and guards came in to free them both. "The Emperor wishes to see you both," one of the guards said and started leading them away from their cell.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Rose half-heartedly listened as the Doctor told Winston Churchill what happened to time, throwing in her own opinions on things and people. ("What happened to time?" "A woman." "More like a stubborn child, but whatever floats four boat. She's what, thirty, all in all? And Time Lords mature at one hundred and twenty?", "You mentioned a woman. What's she like? Attractive I assume?" "Hell… in high heels." "Excuse me?" "Literally! You, on the other hand, are my avenging angel of salvation. But nothing wrong with looking!" "Oh, in that case I must say Rory had wonderful eyes and an incredible bum." "What?! Rory? He's married!" "You said there was nothing wrong with looking! Or are we operating on double standard now?", "You went back to help me with home work? …no, wait a minute… You look like my geography teacher from year seven!") It was nice to hear his side of the story for once while the problem wasn't solved yet.

The trio shifted to the senate chamber somewhere in the middle of the story and every now and then Rose's stomach quivered, not from hunger but that strange feeling she got when she forgot a Silent.

"Of all the things you've told me, I find the hardest to believe. Why did you invite your friends to see your death?" Winston asked and Rose perked up, actually interested in the answer.

"I had to die," answered the Doctor. "I didn't have to die alone. Amy and Rory. The Last Centurion and the Girl Who Waited. However dark it got, I'd turn around and there they'd be. And Rose, my beacon of light in the dark universe, who made me who I am today, who changed me from a war torn old soldier to a champion of justice again. If it's time to go… remember what you're leaving. Remember the Best. My friends have always been the best of me."

"And did you tell them this was going to happen?" Winston wanted to know.

"It'd help if you didn't keep asking questions…" the Doctor looked down at the inside of his left arm. There were three tack marks. "We don't have much time."

"And this woman you spoke of? Did you invite her?"

"Yes, she was there. River Song came twice," answered the Doctor. "And Rose came three times. Everything was in place. I only had to do one more thing. I only had to die." He lost himself in the story again and Rose's mind wandered off.

She checked her arms periodically throughout the story but by the end of it, her arms were covered in black tack marks. During the last part of the Doctor's story, her and the Doctor had taken up spears and Winston had his revolver at the ready.

"Well, what happened?" Winston asked, needing to know.

"Nothing," the Doctor said softly.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing happened and then it kept happening," said Rose.

"Or, if you'd prefer, everything happened at once and it won't ever stop. Time is dying. Its going to be five-oh-two in the afternoon for eternity. The reason it's not yet reached across the whole universe, is because we have Rose here, she is stabilizing it a little. It's a needle struck on record."

"A record? Good lord, man, have you never heard of downloads?"

"Said Winston Churchill," Rose chuckled. "Why was I zero?" she asked.

The Doctor looked at her gently, his spear down. "Because I don't only trust you, I believe in you in a way I've never believed in anything else. Some time ago Amy asked if there were some Time Lord gods and what do I believe in. I never told you, but the Time Lords do have a goddess who's name translates to "the mother who always is and never was", Bad Wolf, a being who is the beginning and end of everything, existing for all of time and space and yet for only a moment. I am lucky I believe in both the Bad Wolf and you, Rose Tyler, because you are one and the same. You are my belief, and it has never let me down, for here you are again, a third, impossible chance," he cradled her face in his hands. "Krop Tor was when I realized it. Faced with something impossible and what holds me together is not the TARDIS, not science, not logic, not my gob, but the thought of you. My pink and yellow human."

Winston looked at his revolver. "I seem to have fired this," he said, perplexed.

"We seem to be defending ourselves," the Doctor said.

"I don't understand."

"The creatures that lead the Silence are remarkable beings, they're memory proof," said the Doctor.

"What does that mean?"

"You forget them as soon as you look away from them," Rose explained.

The Doctor checked the inside of his left arm. Only four tack marks. "Don't panic. In small numbers they're not so bad," he whispered. "Rose-"

"I can take care of myself," she reassured him, her spear at the ready and her sneaker covered feet firmly on the ground. "And it's not small numbers."

In unison the trio looked up at the ceiling where around a hundred Silents were praying upon the, like giant bats hanging upside-down.

Suddenly some sort of grenade rolled noisily on the floor, beeping threateningly. Rose threw herself way from the grenade, closer to the Doctor while he pushed Winston down just when the grenade exploded. And suddenly the senate room was filled with soldiers.

"Go! Go! Go!" came from a familiar voice as the soldiers filled the room. "Keep the Silents in sight at all times and keep your eye drives active!"

"Who the devil are you!" Winston demanded. "Identify yourselves!"

"Pond," the female who had walked in last said. "Amelia Pond."

The Doctor laughed in delight and stopped Winston from shooting her. When he saw her eye patch, his joy died. "Amy… no, Amy, why are you wearing that?" he asked before she shot him.

"Why'd you do that for?" Rose had time to shrike before Amy shot her too.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

"Rose? Where is Rose? Did you leave her with Winston?"she heard first when she woke up, disoriented from the stun blast. The voice was male in origin and one she held dear to her heart.

"Is Rose the blond woman who was with you?" a female voice asked back. "And she is behind the frame, gives her a little more privacy. Who is she?"

"Impossible, that's what she is," the male answered proudly. "This is the third time she's done the impossible and returned to me when I thought I'd lost her forever. The girl who eats Impossible for breakfast. Well, the woman who eats Impossible for breakfast, she's close to ninety-nine in your human years."

"I remember her from the beach, you said she was traveling with a younger you."

"She was… but she came three times and the closest version of her to the epicenter of this explosion was the one who got pulled into this alternate reality."

"Doctor?" she called uncertainly as she sat up, holding her head.

The Doctor's head popped from behind the screen and he smiled widely at her. "Yes Rose?"

"Where are we?"

"On the way to a secret base where people who have noticed time's gone wrong are investigating the whole thing," he said gleefully. "We're not the only ones. Isn't it great?"

"Fantastic," she said with a smile and got off the bed. He took her hand and dragged her to the other part of the train car/office. "Hello Amy."

Amy just nodded at her. "We'll be there in five minutes. If you wish to freshen up, refresher's that-a-way," she said and pointed to the back of the train car.

"Nah, I'm fine, eh Doctor? Or would you like for me to go brush my hair?"

"No! I love your bed hair! Makes you look adorable when you pat to the kitchen and half asleep search for tea," he answered quickly and pulled her to his side, kissing the top of her head.

"You're not much better after you actually sleep," Rose pointed out teasingly. "I happen to remember a few times when you knocked things over in your attempt to get to the bathroom to brush your teeth in the mornings."

"I did not!" squeaked the Doctor with wide eyes. "I was perfectly coordinated."

"Of course you were."

"Thank you… wait, are you patronizing me?"

"Of course not."

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

They entered the command room full of busy people, Doctor leading Rose by hand, eye drives on. A scientist was just showing River some results of his presence in the building, close to her, and Rose knew he wouldn't be able to resist saying something silly.

"Hello River, how's it flowing?" he asked cheerfully. "Oh, I forgot, it isn't, is it?"

"You and your time related puns," Rose said smiling, bumping their shoulders together.

"What, they're classics! We need at a time like this!"

"The death of time," said the bound Madam Kovarian. "The end of time. The end of us all. Why couldn't you just die?"

"Did me best, dear. I showed up. You just can't get the psychopaths these days," answered the Doctor, smiling tightly at her.

"Time was when the psychopaths after him were his best friend and own father, both actually trying to kill him," Rose continued. "Now would you look at that, the bespoken psychopath with delusions of emotion, refusing to kill her mark."

The Doctor looked at her. "And when did you find out about that?"

"I told you, Bad Wolf," Rose rolled her eyes. "But I love what you've done with the place," she said appreciatively as they dramatically took in the interior of the King's chamber.

"How did you swing all this?" the Doctor asked, looking at River curiously.

"Hallucinogenic lipstick," answered River smugly. "Works wonders on President Kennedy. And Cleopatra was a real pushover."

"Cleo always was," he said, glancing at Rose. "Excellent dancer though, you know, for a woman who didn't know what waltz was."

"Yes, you've told me," Rose answered indulgently. "And I have on good authority you haven't _danced_ for a long, _long_ time."

"You and your euphemisms," he grinned at her.

"Haemophilia," she said, grinning right back.

"Werewolves!" he said and they broke into laughter, leaning onto each other for support. They couldn't stop laughing, and just when they were calming down they caught each other's eyes again and the helpless laughter returned. "Y-you know," the Doctor said between bouts of laughter. "We me-met vampires in-in Venice!"

"Oh God! Before or after Casanova?" laughed Rose. "You owe him a chicken!"

"Well, I couldn't let his have his way with you, now could I?"

"You with your northern accent, big ears and leather jacket just couldn't admit your jealousy," the grinned widely, her tongue caught between her teeth.

"I'm a Time Lord! Time Lords don't get jealous over petty things!" the Doctor protested, right along the age old script they'd perfected long ago.

"Did I ever tell you about the time Jack and I-" she started innocently.

The Doctor cut her off with a firm kiss. "And I'd rather you didn't," he said when he pulled back. "I don't want to die feeling jealous of one of my best friends."

"So you're admitting you do get jealous?" she arched an eyebrow.

"Over you? Every time," he promised before looking up. Amy was looking at them like she didn't know what to think. River looked like she wanted to cry. Madam Kovarian looked like she wanted to puke.

"Experiment B4-DM-01-F," she crouched. "We knew you were important to him but looking at you now, I see we didn't even come close in estimating how important."

Rose knew what she had to say. "What experiment?" She was supposed to be the younger Rose, because they couldn't know about the Teselecta, ergo she wasn't supposed to have lived Demon's run yet.

"And you don't even know!" Kovarian laughed. "Even your precious Doctor doesn't know!"

"And now your experiment's gone wrong, because you made a very basic mistake, Madam Kovarian," Rose smiled at her ferally, teeth showing. "Take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath and introduce her to the Doctor. Too bad you never took into account that nearly everyone he comes into contact with falls in love with him. You have no idea how many people I've seen fall for him, ranging from French mistresses to living trees to 51st century conmen, and I've been with him for less than two years."

"It's not funny, Rose," the Doctor pouted. "I've had actual trouble with people who were drawn in by my charm. Though this is admittedly the worst trouble I've had, considering I can't be here if you're here and not with my past self, because I wouldn't have been me had it not been for you. So, until River comes out of her funk and stops killing time, this is a very bad paradox."

"And, while I'm glad you thought of me before going to your death centuries after me, I'd really like to go back to my Doctor and continue our adventures. You said something about 2012 Olympics, didn't you?" Rose asked, playing along. "Because, let's be honest, last you had better hair and was more pretty. By the way, who else is starving? Does this place have chips? I want chips."

"I'd buy if we had the time, but as long as I'm alive, no one has the time, because time is dying. Because of you," the Doctor said the last part looking straight at River. "Tell me you understand that, River."

"Because I refuse to kill the man I love," River said without regret.

"Oh, you love me, do you? That's sweet of you," the Doctor said and walked closer to her. "Isn't that sweet?" he asked Rose over his shoulder.

"Get him!" Amy commanded urgently to the soldiers when the Doctor got within arm's length of River.

"C'mere, you!" said the Doctor, his intent clear because of his hands, reaching for River.

The soldiers grabbed the Doctor and hauled him a few steps away from River while Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a fool, sweetie. I know what happens if we touch," River said seriously.

The Doctor shot a smile at the soldiers before slipping from their hold and lightning quick grabbing hold of River's wrist.

"Get off me, get him off me!" River shouted, half blinded by her panic.

"Doctor, no, let go!" shouted Amy. "Please Doctor, let go!"

"It's moving. Time's moving!" the scientist who's been showing River the results of the Doctor being so close to her.

"Get him off me!" River demanded, panic rising.

"I'm sorry, River, it's the only way," the Doctor said, looking down at her wrist that had started to shine.

And for four seconds they were back on the beach in Utah before the soldiers managed to pry the Doctor away from River.

The alternate reality stabilized around them again, River cradling her wrist and gaping at the Doctor, like she couldn't believe he'd done that. "Cuff him," she ordered the soldiers.

"Oh why do you always have handcuffs," the Doctor groaned as the soldiers forced his hands behind his back. Silently Rose laughed. He always got restrained. And she knew he had a kink, she'd had fun playing on it with Donny… "It's the only way. We're the opposite poles of the disruption. If we touch, it will short out the differential, time can begin again."

"And I'll be by a lakeside killing you," answered River, eyes glassy.

"And time won't fall apart. The clocks will tick. Reality will continue. There isn't another way!" the Doctor argued, trying to convince River.

Rose could see that she wasn't going to give in. She'd rather kill the universe than kill him.

"I didn't say there was, sweetie." River stood there, unrepentant. The stare down between two stubborn people, one who was intent on saving reality, the other intent on saving her love.

"There are so many theories about you and I, you know," she said finally, going around the table.

"Idle gossip," shrugged the Doctor.

"Archeology," River corrected.

"Same thing," the Doctor dismissed her flippantly.

River walked up to him. "Am I the woman who marries you or the woman who murders you?"

"Ooh! I don't want to marry you! I'm already engaged," the Doctor said, wiggling his fingers at Rose who took his hand, even if it was slightly uncomfortable.

"I don't want to murder you," said River, looking between the Doctor and Rose.

Rose had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach and from the corner of her eye saw Amy look at the ceiling with a frown.

"This is no fun at all," the Doctor complained, leaning away from River.

"It isn't, is it?" River leaned closer to him.

"Doctor… what's that?" asked Amy, prompting everyone to look up at the leaking ceiling.

"How many Silents do you have trapped inside this pyramid?" Rose asked quietly, fear creeping into her voice.

"None," Madam Kovarian said. "They're not trapped, they've never been. They've been waiting for this. Waiting for you, Doctor."

The door burst open behind them and captain Rory Williams ran in. "They're out! All of them!" he shouted and barricaded the door as best as he could.

The Doctor immediately turned to face the door and stepped between it and Rose, trying to protect her as best as he could with his hands cuffed. The gunfire and yelling outside the doors make the soldiers in the room aim their guns at the door while everyone else still huddled behind them.

"No one gets in here!" one of the soldiers shouted to the other soldiers on the other side of the doors.

"Ma'am, my men out there, should be able to lock this down. We've them outnumbered," Rory said over his shoulder, gun trained on the door.

"And you're wearing eye drives based on mine, I think," Madame Kovarian said haughtily. "Oops!"

Immediately Rose ripped her eye drive off and just in time when it started buzzing with electricity. Just then the scientist's eye drive started buzzing too, causing her to scream in agony. One of the soldiers followed half-a-second after her, doubling over in pain.

"Help her!" the Doctor shouted. "Help her!"

Rose turned the Doctor to face her and took his eye drive off before it could activate.

"Thanks," he managed to say with a small smile.

"She's dead," Amy said, standing from the fallen scientist.

"Eye pads off, now, remove them!" ordered the Doctor as Amy's eye drive activated.

Acting quickly, Rose detached Amy's eye drive before lunging to help the second soldier while Rory tried to help the first one. Neither of the soldiers survived. From the corner of her eye, she saw River take hers off too. In the end, only Rory and Madam Kovarian were still wearing eye drives.

"The Silence would never allow an advantage, without taking one themselves," Madam Kovarian explained with saccharine sweetness. "The effects will wary from person to person… either death or debilitating agony. But they will take you all, one by one." She gave a breathless laugh that was cut off when her eye drive buzzed. "What are you doing? No, it's me… Don't be stupid, you need me. Stop it, stop that!"

The Doctor turned to River. "We could stop this, right now, you and I," he pleaded with her, ignoring Madam Kovarian shouting next to him. "Amy, tell her!"

But Amy looked at him desperately. "We've been working on something. Just let us show you."

"Haven't you been listening?" cried Rose, standing beside the Doctor. "There is nothing that can be done! Just being here is killing the Doctor, because he is a Time Lord and Time is dying!"

The Doctor nodded along with her. "That's exactly it! There's nothing you can do. My time is up."

"We're doing this for you," argued Amy vehemently.

"Then people are dying for me. I won't thank you for that, Amelia Pond," the Doctor snapped.

"Just let us show you," River said quickly.

"Please," added Amy.

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other helplessly, shaking their heads.

Amy turned to Rory. "Captain Williams, how long do we have?"

"A couple of minutes," Rory answered, gun steady as the door was rammed again.

"That's enough," River said firmly. "We're going to the Receptor Room right at the top of the pyramid," she looked at the Doctor. "I hope you're ready for a climb."

River started to lead the Doctor to the top of the pyramid and Rose followed, steadying the Doctor whenever he seemed to lose his balance. The climb to the top took a few minutes and the screams of the soldiers could still be heard until the very last floor before the top of the pyramid.

"What's this? Oh!" the Doctor said, excitedly looking at the machine with glass and crystal and metal petals. "It's a timey-wimey distress beacon. Who built this?"

River stood over the distress beacon like a proud parent. "I'm the child of the TARDIS. I understand the physics."

"Yes, but that's all you've got! A distress beacon!" the Doctor said, exasperated.

"Now Doctor," Rose tutted at him. "No need to be rude about it."

"I've been sending out a message, a distress call. Outside our bubble of time, the universe is still turning, and I've sent a message everywhere, to the future and the past, to the beginning and the end of everything. "The Doctor is dying, please, please, help,"" River explained.

"River, River," the Doctor said and Rose knew he wanted to curse, he only repeated himself when he found the company too sophisticated or new (or young) to actually curse, like he only insulted other species when he was stressed, "this is ridiculous. That would mean nothing to anyone, it's insane. Worse, it's stupid! You embarrass me!"

Rory and Amy finally arrived, just in time to hear the end of the Doctor's rant. "We barricaded the door… we've got a few minutes… just tell him. Just tell him, River," she said.

River took a deep breath. "Those reports of the sun spots and the solar flares. They're wrong, there aren't any. It's not the sun, it's you, the sky is full of a million, million voices, saying yes, of course we'll help. You've touched so many lives, save so many people. Did you think, when your time came, you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree."

"River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered, time is disintegrating!" the Doctor said. "I swore to myself I'd never again alter a fixed point because of the consequences!"

"I can't let you die!"

"But I have to die!"

"Shut up! I can't let you die without knowing you are loved, by so many and so much. And by no one more than me," she finished, almost tenderly.

Rose had had enough, went around the distress beacon, and slapped River.

"How dare you!" Rose bit out acidly to the other woman who was holding her cheek. "You are such a child. You are one person! When it comes to choosing between the Doctor and the Universe, you're supposed to trust the Doctor can get himself out of trouble and choose the Universe. He's already done so much, he doesn't want the death of the Universe on his shoulders too!"

"But I love him!" cried River desperately.

"So did Madame De Pompadour and Sarah Jane and so do I and God knows how many others!" spat Rose. "But we all know the Doctor. Reinnette maybe the least, she just saw his surface thoughts and memories, but Sarah Jane knew him for years and I met him when he was at his lowest, I've seen his worst. What do you know of him? You've met him once! Knowing him and knowing about him are two different things! Now, I'm not saying he can't leave an impression on the first meeting, but that's all it is, an impression. You need years to even scratch his surface, especially with this Doctor, because he regenerated with so much pain that he came with in-built walls to protect himself from more hurt. But that wall can't hold the death of the entire universe from hurting him." Rose was crying fully now. "And it hurts! Gods, I know it hurts and will hurt and you'll suffer and you'll have to live with yourself. But if you don't, we're all going to die! You, me, the Doctor, your parents, Marilyn Monroe! Get over yourself and let time fix itself!"

She then grabbed hold of River and pulled her around the distress beacon to the Doctor who turned around and grabbed River's wrist, hands still bound behind his back. Rose held the struggling River so that the Doctor could keep toughing her for time to start again.

"No!" screamed Amy, but Rory held her back.

River trashed in Rose's hold, shouting at them to let her go, that she didn't want to kill the Doctor. "Trust him," Rose whispered to her and felt her relax in her hold.

And they were on the beach again, Rose at her desk and the power fluctuation in the Teselecta told her River had fired. The second one didn't come as a surprise and the third one shorted out the gravity center, making everything fling to the side. Rose was lucky she had such a small office and only fell three feet. It was also lucky that everything inside the Teselecta was bolted to the building frame and all that fell on her were a few pens and papers rather than a desk and a hard drive.

It took maintenance a few minutes to fix the gravity and Rose patiently waited by the junction of the wall and the floor, she didn't fancy more bruises for falling than she was already going to have. When she could stand on the floor again, she ran past her coworkers to the lift and took it to the eye level where she knew the TARDIS would be.

Normally office workers didn't have access to that level of the Teselecta, because they were more likely to lose their wrist IDs should there be some criminal left to the antibodies, but Rose was in charge of approving/disapproving applications to different levels (the bathing facilities in the left foot were better than in the right foot and she got a dozen applications a week for the use of the sauna and the pool) and knew self defense from her Torchwood days, so she'd rigged her own wrist ID. Had she had any plans to stay, it would've been a big mark against her, but with the Doctor and the TARDIS there, she didn't care.

The lift doors opened and she faced the TARDIS. There was barely enough space for her to slip by it but she didn't mind being so close to her home.

"Ah, Ms. Noble," captain Carter greeted her, seeing her over the Doctor's shoulder. "I wondered how long you'd be able to stay away."

The Doctor had turned around and was looking at Rose who'd stopped in her tracks, staring right back at him.

Captain Carter coughed and excused himself, not that either Rose or the Doctor noticed.

"You're really here," he said with a small, content smile.

"I'm really here," she answered, a smile beginning to form on her face.

Simultaneously they sprang towards each other, meeting in the middle in a hug that turned into a deep kiss filled with longing, joy of their reunion and love that had already lasted several lifetimes. They knew they had to talk and get to know each other again, but the basics wouldn't have changed. They were still the Doctor and Rose. Forever.

The Doctor backed Rose into the TARDIS, not breaking the kiss, but he'd rather the rest of the reunion be out of sight of others, especially when he saw Jack exiting the other elevator. He heard the catcalls even through the TARDIS doors.


	3. Epilogue

A/N:This is the epilogue! I didn't mean to have it typed so soon, but I just couldn't stop until it was written! It's done! The plunny can't bother me anymore! R&R!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

"Oh! Yes, yes, you said no family. But there must be people who love you. Friends…" Madge Arwell trailed off and the Doctor opened his mouth to answer.

"You told her you have no family?" Rose shouted from inside the TARDIS, poking her head out. "Honestly, Doctor, just because you faked your death, you've become all angsty-wangsty. You've got me and Jack. And I still think it's been long enough, we can go see Amy and Rory again, the Silence ain't keeping an eye on them anymore. We could even drop in on Sarah Jane and Luke. Or Martha and Mickey. Wilf even, maybe see Donna from afar. Or some other long lost friend of yours. You've got the largest family on Earth but you refuse to see it, because we're only human rather than Time Lord."

"And you sound like Sarah," the Doctor said back.

"Yeah, she's a smart woman and we've been talking. You know, Luke's in college now, and he's only sixteen, she's very proud of him," Rose told him before turning to Madge. "He's staying for Christmas, and if you don't mind, Jack and I could also join you. I'm Rose Noble, by the way, his wife. Jack is my brother."

Madge smiled widely. "We'd love if you came," she said before turning to the Doctor. "And right after, Caretaker, you are going to your friends and tell them you're not dead, do you hear me?"

"Yes mum," the Doctor sulked. "I'll think about it."

"I'll make sure he does," Rose whispered loudly to Madge with a wide grin. "The only other person who has had that kind of effect on him was my mother, and that was after she'd slapped him silly. That alone means you must be a magnificent person."

"Well, I don't know about that," Madge blushed. She then took Rose by arm, leading her to the attic door. "Caretaker, join us downstairs and bring your brother-in-law," she ordered over her shoulder with a smile.

"Yes mum," he grumbled and went to fetch Jack. It was better to do as he was told or he might find only cold water on the TARDIS for a week...

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The Doctor knocked on the TARDIS blue door, Rose on his right, Jack on his left and TARDIS on the other side of the street.

"Ughh! If that is more carol singers, I have my water pistol!" The threat could be heard from the other side of the door and Rose and Jack grinned at each other as the Doctor fidgeted between them. "You don't want to be wet on a night like this," said Amy as she opened the door, brandishing her water pistol, freezing at the sight of the Doctor.

"Not absolutely sure… how long…?" the Doctor said, wringing his hands, Rose's hand on his elbow calming him slightly.

"Two years?" Amy demanded and squirted water at his face three times, making him flinch each time.

"Not bad, considering you made Sarah Jane think you were dead for thirty," Rose ribbed him as he wiped the water from his face. He gave her a sour look which Amy mirrored.

"Okay. Fair point," he told Amy, turning back to her.

"So," Amy's voice cracked, "you're not dead."

"And a Happy New Year!" cheered the Doctor jokingly.

"River told us she suspected," Amy said seriously.

"Of course she did," grouched the Doctor, hovering awkwardly at the doorstep.

"She's a good girl," Amy defended her daughter. "Well, I'm not gonna hug first."

"Nor am I," answered the Doctor, looking awkwardly to his left.

The two friends continued to avoid eye contact for a while until Jack got impatient and scooped Amy up for a hug. "Hugs all around! It's Christmas! Captain Jack Harkness, at your service!" he declared and drew back. "Doc's told me all about you but he failed to mention how beautiful you are."

"Not now, Jack," the Doctor groaned and Rose giggled. "Pond, this is Jack, don't flirt with him and keep him away from your husband. And this is Rose, though you've already met, but the Silence wiped your memory of her. You met her at Lake Silencio."

"And in that aborted timeline in a world that never was," said Amy, looking at Rose. "She… oh, I can barely remember it, but she was important to you."

"Yes, she is," the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around Rose's shoulders and squeezing gently. "Now c'mere Pond!" he said and hugged Amy, both of them laughing.

"Oh! Mr. Pond!" Amy shouted to the house after their hug ended. "Guess who's coming to dinner!"

Rory appeared to the hallway from somewhere, wrapping his fleece tighter around himself. "Oooh! Not dead then!" he joked.

"We've done that," Amy informed him rather pointedly.

Jack stepped forward and took Rory's hand. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who might you be, handsome?"

"Jack, what did I just tell you," whined the Doctor, arm once again around Rose.

"I was only saying hello!" Jack protested, innocence coating his voice.

"For you, that's a way to flirt with strangers," laughed Rose.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" asked Rory, looking between them.

"Only if it's no trouble," answered Rose. "If you'd rather just the Doctor though, Jack and I can wait in the TARDIS. He owes me a pedicure, see, and I've been hoarding it for a rainy day."

"It's no problem, really," Rory assured her. "We've already set the table for the Doctor, two extra plates here or there. You're Rose, right? We met in that alternate world."

"Yes, we did, and we met on the beach too, but apparently the Silence wiped your memory of it according to the Doctor," Rose smiled.

"You set a place for me?" asked the Doctor in disbelief. "Why? You didn't know I was coming!"

"Oh, we always do. It's Christmas, you moron!" Amy rolled her eyes at him and squirted water at him again, before turning and leading Jack into the house, Rory going ahead of them.

Rose and the Doctor followed into the entrance hall, Rose watching him turn to close the door. She offered him silent support when she saw him discreetly wipe away a tear before finally closing the door. "Come along, dear, your Ponds are waiting," she said and extended her hand to him, wiggling her fingers.

Grinning, he took it and let her pull him to the Ponds' warm kitchen where Rory was setting the extra plates and Amy was checking on the food. They were laughing at something Jack had said, and he himself was leaning against the kitchen counter, blatantly checking them out.

Smiling at each other Rose and the Doctor joined the conversation, denying whatever story Jack was exaggerating this time.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

End notes: It was pointed out in a review by Laikayanel that Eleven and Rose were ignoring Amy, Rory and River a lot of the time and that the three didn't interrupt them as often as one might imagine, but the reason for that was that all of them were insecure. Rose didn't know what her place was in the new new new Doctor's life and so she clung to the dynamics she had with Ten which in turn meant a lot of inside jokes and references to things only they would understand. The Doctor thought it was the last (or second last) time he ever saw her and was trying to make the most of it. Amy and Rory of course knew that the Doctor had had companions before them but they'd never met anyone before and weren't sure how to react when Amy's Raggedy Doctor fawned over a stranger. River... well, she knew who Rose was but as the last few hundred years the Doctor had had adventures with only River (the farewell tour and the many adventures, such as Jim the Fish and Easter Islands), so she had clung to her wish/delusion that the Doctor married her. Rose showing up was more than unwelcome to her. And the older Rose, she tried, but she'd missed the Doctor more than she had imagined she had, and it was purely reminiscing (she was ninety-nine by that point), not meant to make the Doctor ignore his other friends. Hope that clears it up slightly...


End file.
